Incarceration Policy And Crime Reduction - 1332 Words

As already covered in the literature review, studies on the relationship between incarceration policy and crime reduction is yet to be clear for utilization by policymakers. In most cases, researchers agree that increased incarceration may perhaps have a positive effect on the reduction of crime rates. However, it is the scale of this action that has a limiting scope attached to it when empirical studies are carried. For instance, Stemen (2007) observes that a 10 percent increase in incarceration may lead to about 2 to 4 percent reduction in crime. Moreover, further increases in the number of individuals being sentenced in prisons have further economic ramifications without necessarily helping in direct reduction of criminal activities or†¦show more content†¦As defined by Liedka, Piehl Useem (2006), deterrence refers to the action against crime through the introduction of legal sanctions. In this way, there is an incentive to encourage non-criminal behavior among the population. On the other hand, incapacitation refers to the physical restraints directed towards criminals in order to eliminate further crime. In effect, both incapacitation and deterrence are meant to have direct positive effects on crime rates. By reducing the number of criminals roaming on the streets and introducing penalties for anyone found to be involved in such activities, the primary expectation is that crime rates should drastically drop. However, questions have been raised on whether this factor still holds when the scale of incarceration increases over time. The Issue of Scale The findings of this paper have raised several issues based on the linkage between scale of incarceration and crime rates in a given jurisdiction. First, results indicate that the effectiveness of incarceration in instances of increased crime may rely on a given jurisdiction. This means that this policy of crime reduction may not be universally effective. Generally, jurisdictions whose incarceration policy implementation are at advanced stages may face lesser challenges in crime reduction that their less developed peers. This is an obvious finding because it is expected that